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Wall Street futures pointed to a flat open today, struggling for direction, in a session dominated by central bank speakers on both sides of the Atlantic. Stock market sits near record highs, but dollar strength could stand in the way of further advancement.

What Is Moving the Markets

LONDON (Reuters) - The dollar climbed to its highest level in almost 14 years against a basket of currencies on Friday, while U.S. bond yields were set for their biggest fortnightly rise in 13 years on bets U.S. inflation and interest rates are headed higher.

DOHA (Reuters) - OPEC is moving closer toward finalizing this month its first deal since 2008 to limit oil output, with most members prepared to offer Iran significant flexibility on production volumes, ministers and sources said on Friday.

WOLFSBURG, Germany (Reuters) - Volkswagen and its powerful labor unions agreed to cut 30,000 jobs at the core VW brand in exchange for avoiding forced redundancies in Germany until 2025, a compromise which leaves the carmaker's profitability still lagging rivals.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Most of the U.S. coal industry doubts Donald Trump can fulfill his promise to make the ailing industry great again in a country awash in dirt-cheap natural gas, a competing fuel.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The U.S. government said on Friday it was deeply concerned over Russia's decision to block public access to networking site LinkedIn, saying it created a precedent that could be used to justify blocking other sites operating in Russia.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Snap Inc, the red-hot messaging company, is seen by many tech investors as the next Facebook or Google, but its youthful founders are pushing far more aggressively than its predecessors in moving from scrappy startup to public company.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - JPMorgan Chase & Co is once again facing questions about who will succeed its larger-than-life chief executive after Jamie Dimon was courted by the incoming U.S. president for the role of Treasury secretary.

Moments after Donald Trump offered the Attorney General spot to senator Jeff Sessions (which he promptly accepted), it was announced that Trump had also picked rep. Mike Pompeo as CIA director, who likewise accepted.

Trump has offered position of CIA director to US Rep Mike Pompeo and Pompeo has accepted -transition official

— Steve Holland (@steveholland1) November 18, 2016

The selection of Pompeo, a three-term Republican from Wichita, started earlier this week when he met with Donald Trump, according to the president-elect's transition team. Now we know what the meetings were about. Courtesy of McClatchy, here is profile of the new director of America's top spy agency:

* * *

Pompeo originally supported Florida Sen. Marco Rubio's presidential bid. Like most of his Kansas colleagues, Pompeo backed Trump when it was clear the New York real-estate developer would become the Republican presidential nominee, though not enthusiastically.

But Pompeo was close to Trump's running mate, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, who served with Pompeo in the House. Last month, Pompeo helped prepare Pence for the vice presidential debate with Sen. Tim Kaine of Virginia.

The most prominent Kansas elected official to endorse Trump early on was Secretary of State Kris Kobach, now a member of the Trump transition team and a possible candidate for U.S. Attorney General.

Barack Obama on fake news: 'We have problems' if we can't tell the difference The US president denounced the spate of misinformation across social media platforms, including Facebook, suggesting American politics can be affected. -Guardian

Is fake news the new "conspiracy theory." We've read that it may be, and it seems likely to us.

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